A Christmas Carol, starring George C Scott. (The Muppet version changes the basic Dickens' story). The movie's message is as powerful today as when Dickens wrote the story. In it, Scrooge learns he has substituted other things for basic human needs: the need to connect and care about others. Scrooge was overly concerned with objects because he had been deeply hurt as a child. He had no mother and his father resented him. Gradually withdrawing from a hurtful life to one of imagined playmates and then to material wealth, it took the three spirits' prodding for Scrooge to see how empty his life had become.

This is a message relevant to all of us. We all get hurt, some more than others, by our relationships. How easy is it, rather than deal with the pain and the difficulty of building new relationships, to retreat into a world of food, shopping, computer games or workaholism. I try to watch this movie every year at the start of the Christmas season. What is more important to me? My family and friends and others in need, or Christmas decorations, overly fancy food and too many plans? I fear I am a Scrooge at heart, but at least the movie helps me attempt a better way.

-- Patricia Holten, Richland